A hem of bottom innerwear such as bottom wear, pants, spats, and shorts, and top innerwear such as camisoles and shirts is generally processed by turning up the body fabric and stitching it up or sewing hem tape thereon (e.g., refer to JP-A-9-31708, JP-A-6-81201, and JP-A-9-95805).
The purpose of the above processing of hems is primarily to prevent the fray of the body fabric. Other purposes include enhancement of the appearance by setting off or accentuating the hem, provision of tightening effects for wearers, and the like.
Some outerwear does not need the processing of the hems because the hems are finished integrally in the process of knitting the body fabric. The hems finished in that way have no stitched part between them and the body fabric, having no unevenness, thus being preferred due to their streamlined appearance.
However, for innerwear which uses yarn thinner (No. 30 yarn count or more) and denser (0.58 or more in cover factor) than outerwear, the integrated hem finishing in the process of knitting has been regarded as impossible in principle with an exception of the following case.
The exceptional case adopts a manufacturing method for innerwear in which continuous fabric is knitted by piece knitting using a circular knitting machine; isolation regions using melt yarn are formed between the pieces; the isolation regions are melted in downstream operation to isolate the pieces from each other; and the pieces are finished as innerwear. The use of the exceptional manufacturing method provides hems that need no subsequent processing (e.g., refer to JP-A-10-8361).
Melt yarn used to form the isolation region in the exceptional manufacturing method is formed by plying about 10 to 30 filaments of 3 to 5 deniers. In other words, one melt yarn was 30 to 150 deniers in thickness.
In many cases, circular knitting machines have been used to knit the fabric for innerwear. Accordingly, the knitted fabric is cylindrical fabric.
The circular knitting machines have a cylindrical cylinder and a disc-shaped dial disposed on the cylinder. Around the cylinder are provided a large number of cylinder needles with the length direction thereof oriented vertically; on the upper surface of the dial are provided a large number of dial needles radially with the length direction thereof oriented in the radial direction (e.g., refer to JP-A-2002-38359, JP-A-4-11055, JP-A-6-33349, and JP-A-5-25757).
The cylinder needles and the dial needles rotate with the rotation of the cylinder and the dial to knit double-material cylindrical fabric (a fabric having the same knitted structure on both sides thereof) by vertical motion of the cylinder needles and the to-and-fro motion of the dial needles.
The knitted cylindrical fabric is hung downward along the inside of the cylinder and is wound in a roll to be wound with a specified torque by a winder disposed under the cylinder (e.g., refer to JP-B-1-44819 and JP-B-1-59373).
Of such circular knitting machines, those for innerwear are called high-gauge circular knitting machines because of dense knitting with thin yarn. High gauge generally denotes 17 gauges or more. The 17 gauges indicates that 17 or more cylinder needles are contained in one inch. Incidentally, circular knitting machines of less than 17 gauges are referred to as low-gauge circular knitting machines. The low-gauge circular knitting machines are often used to knit outerwear.
In conventional innerwear, however, body fabric is generally folded up and stitched or hem tape is sewn thereon to process hems thereof, resulting in, in most cases, projecting lines along the stitch, steps due to piling, or visible seams between the body fabric and the hem.
Accordingly, with such innerwear on, the boundary between the body fabric and the hem comes out to outerwear, which can be viewed from the outside, providing bad appearance. Also, from the nature of innerwear, the projecting lines, the steps, or the seams come into direct contact with skins and provide a harsh texture, decreasing the comfortability.
The time consuming work to finish the hems has been a stumbling block in increasing the productivity of innerwear and decreasing the cost.
The foregoing exceptional innerwear manufacturing method in which fabric is separated by the isolation region made of melt yarn does not require the time consuming work to finish the hems. However, it has the following problem.
The melt yarn used for the isolation regions must be as thick as 30 to 150 deniers. This is because yarn without those thicknesses has insufficient strength for knitting with conventional high-gauge circular knitting machines and causes yarn breakage.
However, the isolation regions, although made of melt yarn, sometimes remain slightly on the hem side after being melted for isolation. Accordingly, with the above-mentioned thick melt yarn, the end of the melt yarn remaining on the hem side sometimes causes coarse texture. This also sometimes decreased the comfortability of innerwear.
Moreover, in most of the conventional innerwear, since the entire body fabric is made of a single knitted structure, there has been no product having, for example, various functions such as moisture retention and body correction, appearance in which patterns and designs, texture, or the like are varied only in part of the body fabric. This poses the disadvantages of difficulty in providing products having discriminating features for sellers and in obtaining products showing individuality for users.
This was caused by the fact that the conventional high-gauge circular knitting machines used to knit innerwear cannot be equipped with a yarn-feeding changeover switch. Even if the conventional high-gauge circular knitting machines is equipped with a yarn-feeding changeover switch, a phenomenon occurs in which the knitting operation does not make progress (or knitting can not be made) at all even if the fabric is drawn by a winder. The reason for the phenomenon has not been clarified at all.
The present invention has been made in light of such circumstances, and has as an object of providing innerwear which has good appearance, texture, and comfortability.
The invention has another object of providing innerwear which has outstanding effects in discrimination as products and in showing individuality for users by providing different functions, appearance, and texture in part of the body fabric.
The invention has still another object of providing a high-gauge circular knitting machine and a knitting method using the high-gauge circular knitting machine capable of knitting innerwear, easily, reliably, and with high productivity, the innerwear having good appearance, texture, and comfortability and the innerwear having different functions, appearance, and texture in part of the body fabric to provide outstanding effects in discrimination as products and in showing individuality for users.